Re: yipeee!

Mike <mikee_at_mikee.ath.cx> wrote in message news:<10220krn5h7jh4a_at_corp.supernews.com>...
> Just recieved a 'thought experiment' assignment from my boss.
> Does it make sense, and how would it be accomplised, to move
> the databases from the mainframe (small VSE 390?) to AIX?
> I mentioned that we should then look at possible programs from
> IBM to convert the mainframe database (VSAM?) files into DB2/AIX,
> or Oracle databases. And that I thought Oracle had some facility
> such that we could cluster and load-balance two+ nodes running
> something like Parallel Oracle so that should a node need booting
> or modifying off-line the application is still running (at
> reduced capacity) for the users.

Is HA a real requirement, or just a nice-to-have? Because if you can live with something like 99.9% availability then perhaps log-shipping would suffice and you might be able to set up a db2 udb prototype in a single afternoon. If it's one of those rare applications that really needs 99.999% well then you've got some real work ahead - regardless of the product chosen.

Oracle has more functionality and capability here but it's more expensive, more complex/error-prone to use, and while i'm not sure of RAC, OPS was a manageability nightmare. Still, for many situations it is great.

However - one more thing: I find that my database choices usually hinge more on the strategic direction of the company - rather than on the specific needs of the application. If you go application-by-application you'll end up with a half-dozen different databases, and the skillset problem that results is typically more challenging than the minor technical differences between commercial databases. Received on Wed Feb 04 2004 - 13:22:27 CST